|
|
|
|
Unnaturally Blue Lighting
|
"I used to like the color blue. Now it's dead to me. Cram it, Smurfs. Piss off, ocean. Screw you, sky."
A subtrope of Mood Lighting common in Science Fiction and Forensics shows. Shots are suffused with vaguely blue lighting. This is usually complemented by stark, overly bright desk lamps. Occasionally this infects outdoor scenes, making sunny days look more overcast; this should not be confused with the dark blue camera filter used in shooting " day for night".
A low-intensity version of the effect can be produced by shooting a scene light with daylight-balanced light on film (or its digital equivalent) that is balanced for incandescent (tungsten) lighting. Daylight has more blue than incandescent indoor lighting, but typically has less than some fluorescent lighting used in offices, which may be part of where the trope originated. In the early 80s, HMI-lighting (strong lights, with daylight temperature) came and was often used outside, mixed with regular bulbs, giving them a strong blue tint (as they were bluer than they are today), which is often seen in the early 80s. Today it still remains for moonlight, as otherwise it would be hard to separate from daylight, however often in a much subtler way.
Although this is a good way to cover up a lower-budget set, the light can sometimes become glaring and/or induce too many shadows.
Nowadays, the rise of Orange-Blue Contrast makes this nearly ubiquitous in mainstream movies and television.
Examples
open/close all folders
Advertising
- For whatever reason, it's being used in recent Viagra commercials like this one
 (maybe because the pill itself is blue?). The effect is weird because that particular commercial takes place in the desert.
Film
- Used to great effect in Little Buddha, contrasting the cool blue Seattle shots with the warm reds of Tibet.
- In The Lord of the Rings films, the battles at Helm's Deep and Osgiliath are shown in a blue tint.
- The Underworld series makes consistent use of trope, blended with Hollywood Darkness. Individual scenes which aren't primarily blue are a rarity. Even the DVD covers invoke this.
- Minority Report is a classic example — it's in most scenes and submerges some of them. Some viewers found it strained their eyes.
- The future scenes in the Terminator films look like this.
- The first Twilight movie had this, possibly to emphasize the characters' pale skin or the cloudiness of Forks. The sequels had more of a golden, warm tone to them.
- The One uses this to distinguish between the different universes that the movie covers; the first universe plays this trope deadly straight with heavy blue lighting, the "central" universe and Gabriel's one have slightly cold lighting with a little blue, and the "happy" universe that Gabe is sent to at the end has warmer, more orange lighting.
- Done in Blade 2. Daylight is a cool blue, to contrast with the harsh, halogen yellow of night lighting.
- The more recent Harry Potter films use this a lot for any scene that isn't in Hogwarts, and some that are, probably to go with the Darker and Edgier direction they're trying to take the franchise.
- Battlefield Earth: Most of the Psychlo-centric scenes are shot like this. It is possible they are taking their lead from the novel where Pyscho "breath-gas" has a purple tint.
- In The Matrix, all the scenes that take place in said Matrix have green lighting (except for the non- remastered first film). It's computerized tinting done entirely in post-production. That's why the non-remastered version is different. Similarly, scenes set in the real world have a blue bias.
- Used in Pitch Black, though it's justified by making one of the planet's suns a blue giant and it's only blue when that sun's in the sky.
- In one dream sequence of In the Mouth of Madness, Cane tells the hero his favorite color is blue. Much to his horror, the next scene is filmed with a very heavy blue tint.
- Traffic does this with Michael Douglas's politician storyline. Each storyline in the film is distinguished by slightly different filters.
- Justified in the second half of Melancholia, where the sky is dominated by a giant blue planet. It becomes intensely blue light when the planet is about to crush Earth.
- The US remake of The Ring is filmed with a blue tint.
Live-Action TV
Video Games
- X-Wing has this in the scene where a disturbing-looking medical droid is helping treat your rebel pilot's injuries if he survives his ship being destroyed and doesn't get captured by the empire.
- Fallout: New Vegas: While solely not for Mood Lighting purposes, night vision abilities work this way. In particular, using cateye (potent night vision drug) in very dark places will make everything heavily blue-tinted, which does make things easier to see, at least.
- In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, the Silent Realm is like this when Link isn't being chased by the Guardians.
- Mass Effect is a heavy offender, going as far as giving crimson sunsets a blue halo.
Real Life
- L.E.D lights have much more blue light in them then florescent lights, and the most sensitive spot on the human retina, the fovea centralis, has no blue light-detecting cones, so blue lights are much more uncomfortable for the human eye to look at. This has raised some health concerns about them, as they may disrupt humans sleep patterns, since they suppress the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone.
|
|
